Jalandhar, March 27
The bottlenecks at the Domoria underbridge, connecting the old city to the new, are not likely to ease soon. The municipal corporation has mooted a proposal that the project should be undertaken by the Railways.

The delay seems inevitable as the corporation authorities think that the railway authorities should themselves undertake the Herculean task.

Though such a job is generally undertaken by the Railways itself, MC officials earlier had been reportedly insisting that the project must be entrusted with them. However, the officials have now decided to revert on their stand.

Municipal commissioner C.S. Talwar hinted this saying, “My predecessor had taken the previous stand but the corporation now wishes to forego it. Tenders from the construction companies too had been invited but the amount quoted by them was much higher than the estimates.”

He said, “The MC does not want to take the risk as the ROB would come over the main Amritsar-Delhi line and it remains too busy. We were supposed to corelate the work schedule as per the Railway time table but it is quite a tedious job.” The Punjab Chief Minister is personally taking up the matter with the railway minister so that the railway authorities complete the work in the best possible way. In case, the steel work is done, it is likely to cost nearly Rs 5 to 7 crore more to the corporation, added Talwar.

SE (R and B) Kulwinder Singh said the project was started almost four years back with an aim to ensure better connectivity between the old city and the new areas. Besides, during rains the underbridge gets clogged, forcing city residents to take a longer detour.

Jalandhar, March 27
An illegal entry in the land records by a patwari more than half a century back has made the life miserable for 76-year-old Harbhajan Singh of Khambran village here.

Despite a decision passed in his favour by a civil court here almost three months back, he is being made to run from pillar to post seeking ratification of the entry of the mutation. All this in the twilight of his life when he is blinded in the right eye, has cataract in the left one, partially lost his sense of hearing and is able to walk very slowly.

With a hope to see the correction done in his lifetime, the man is being forced to repeatedly ride his old scooter all the way to the district administrative complex, almost 10 km from his village, to lodge his complaint with the higher officials in the sangat darshan.

The elderly man has been heard twice but to no respite as of now. ADC (G) S.S. Marar said he had heard the plea of Harbhajan and asked the tehsildar to come up with his own report at the earliest instead of relying on the one submitted by patwari Avtar Singh. The septuagenarian has alleged that even after the court order, the patwari did not make a correct entry and he had to take up the matter with tehsildar-1 on January 8. The tehsildar further asked the patwari for necessary action but the matter continued to linger on. Harbhajan had moved the court in 2001 seeking declaration of a mutation number 1663 regarding share in his common land in the name of 12 persons, residents of Bootan Mandi here, as illegal and invalid.

He had said he had sold 88 kanals and 7 marlas of land to sons of Chandu Ram and entered a sale deed on June 3, 1957. He said the vendees got the mutation entered along with another mutation about land measuring 4 kanals and 14 marlas. Judge R.K. Sharma found that the complainant had the right to claim declaration invalid as not even a single line mentioned in the sale deed read that he had transferred the common land as well in favour of Chandu Ram’s sons.

Jalandhar, March 27
For 70-year-old philatelist Gurbachan Singh Chawla his vast collection of stamps is one of the most priced possessions for him. He owns a systematic collection of postage stamps.

Today he not only conducts exhibitions in the city but also motivates youngsters to learn the art of philately through the first-ever Philatelic Club of the state, “Jullundur Philatelic Club”.

The exhibition was organised by the Jalandhar Postal Division and the Jalandhar Philatelic Club for the development of philately as a hobby among the children, at the local Prajapati Hall under the “post-Independence India” theme.

Talking to The Tribune, Chawla, also the chairman of the Philately Club, said perhaps this was one such interesting and educative hobby which increased general knowledge and provided information about the latest developments of a particular country.

Chawla displayed some very informative postage stamps dating back to some very important years of changes in India. One such section was that of the armed forces when India issued special postage stamps for the Indian Army which was sent to different operations in countries like Cambodia, Korea, Loas, Vietnam and Congo.

Similarly, another section revealed the first stamp of India “A hoisted Indian flag” which was released on August 15, 1947. As many as nine collections were on display during the exhibition, of which five were in the senior category and the rest in the junior category.

Says Bawa Surjeet Singh Bhalla, an elderly resident of Ferozepore and participant in the exhibition, “I have been collecting postage stamps since 1960 and despite remaining busy in routine work I manage to spare some time for this leisure activity.”

Bawa displayed his collection of games like Olympics, rings, running, wrestling, archery, fencing, gymnastics, show jumping, baseball and much more. Another beautiful series of stamps was on display under the sub-title “nature and natural resources” which included glimpses of mother nature, soil, forests, wildlife, energy and water.

On the other hand, in the junior category, four students, Hemant Narang, Kartik Khera, Kritika Khera and Neha Arora, displayed their collections of stamps on the Indian Railways, birds, the cat family and horses, respectively, in the exhibition.

Meanwhile, curious students from various schools, including Seth Hukam Chand SD Public school, Shri Parvati Jain Senior Secondary School, SD Model School, Circular Road, and many others served as the perfect audience for the exhibition.

Jalandhar, March 27
The members of Khel Udhog Sangh today held a protest in front of the house of Jalandhar South MLA Bhagat Chuni Lal and urged the state government to extend the deadline for depositing the C-form, a mandatory requirement for inter-state trade.

Addressing the gathering, president of the Sangh, Ravinder Dheer, said the SAD-BJP combine has failed to fulfil their poll promises.

“The government has turned a blind eye towards our problems. The C-form is one of the most important documents for smooth functioning of trade,” he added. The members had held a meeting with the MLA on March 15 and decided that in case the government did not extended the form deposit deadline, they would hold a state-wide protest on March 26.

The demonstration was attended by Surgical Complex Association, Federation of Industrial and Traders Association, Jalandhar Hand Tools Manufacturers Association, Surgical Goods Manufacturers Association, Jalandhar Traders , Manufacturers Association and Focal Point Extension Association and others.

Jalandhar, March 27
The Cambridge International School for Girls has announced the opening of a new co-educational school from this session. Deepak Bhatia, chairman of the school, said the classes would be held in a separate block of the present campus till the completion of the new building.

Jalandhar, March 27
The cantonment board authorities are all geared up for the forthcoming ordinary elections of wards 1 to 7 of the cantonment board to constitute a civic body, scheduled to be held on May 18 here. This time the ministry of defence (MoD) has especially reserved two of its existing seven wards in the cantonment for women and one for the Scheduled Castes. Last time the elections were held in February 1997.

Rajender Joshi, a civil member of the board, said under rule 19(2) of the cantonment board, the authorities had decided to accept receipt of application for inclusion of name in the electoral rolls after March 28 and the office would remain open from March 29 to 30 as well.

He added that the submission of the nomination papers to the returning officer would be on April 17 and withdrawal of the candidature on April 22. “To make the process of the election smooth and easy, the candidates would be allotted special symbols,” Joshi said.

“The symbols to be used in the election can be chosen by the candidates as per the list as annexed. In case a candidate demands the symbol of a political party as approved by the Election Commission of India, prior permission from the authorities concerned of the district unit of the respective party would be mandatory,” he said.

The cantonment board authorities have earmarked as many as 15 schools situated in Jalandhar cantonment for polling.

Meanwhile, stressing on the need to conduct free and fair elections, chief executive officer (CEO) of the cantonment board Sumitra Mishra said the authorities were trying hard to arrange electronic voting machines (EVMs).

“We have already spoken to one of the officials of the Election Commission of India in this regard and are waiting for their response. But in case we do not get EVMs then the elections would be conducted through the ballot system,” she clarified.

Talking about the election results, Joshi said in case the authorities managed to get EVMs, the results would be announced on the same day. On the other hand, if the elections would be conducted through the ballot system then it may take some time.

It is pertinent to mention here that earlier the five-year term of the seven councillors elected to the Jalandhar cantonment board ended in 2002, but the MoD extended it by a year which lapsed in 2003. It was on October 6, 2003, that the authorities constituted a Jalandhar Cantonment Board (varied) with 91 sub-area commander as its ex-officio president and a civilian CEO as its member.